cimplify explain

Print canonical guidance on Cimplify concepts (cart, products, bundles, composites, services, errors, exit codes) straight from the terminal. 20 topics, bundled into the CLI binary at build time, no network calls.

explain is the offline, terse, agent-friendly counterpart to the docs site. Every topic body is a curated snapshot of the relevant cimplify.dev page (frontmatter and JSX stripped) bundled into the CLI binary at build time. No network calls, no rate limits, no broken-link risk.

Use it mid-edit when you need the rule on one specific thing: "what's the cart payload?", "what does INVALID_INPUT mean?", "how do bundles differ from composites?".

Usage

cimplify explain               # list every topic
cimplify explain cart          # print the cart guide
cimplify explain bundles       # print the bundles + composites section
cimplify explain --json        # topics list as JSON
cimplify explain cart --json   # full topic body in a JSON envelope

Topics

Twenty topics ship in the binary, grouped:

Storefront patterns

Topic	Covers
`brand`	Single source of truth for visible strings (`lib/brand.ts`)
`eject`	When and how to eject SDK components into your project

Catalogue

Topic	Covers
`products`	Product shape, fetch by id or slug
`variants`	Variant axes, picking by axis selections
`bundles`	Fixed bundles and configurable composites (same section)
`composites`	Alias of `bundles`
`add-ons`	Product add-ons / customizations (gift wrap, engraving, …)
`quotes`	Quote-first pricing: lock the price before add-to-cart
`discounts`	Deals and promotional pricing

Transactional

Topic	Covers
`cart`	Flat add-to-cart payload + quote-then-add flow
`checkout`	Flat `ProcessArgs` body for `/checkout`, payment methods
`orders`	Order shape and status flow
`subscriptions`	Recurring billing, plan changes, cancellation

Scheduling

Topic	Covers
`services`	Bookable services + variant-aware availability
`bookings`	Slot lookup, creating bookings, reschedule and cancel

Surface conventions

Topic	Covers
`errors`	`CimplifyError` codes and remediation
`uploads`	Presigned upload flow: init → PUT → confirm
`exit-codes`	CLI exit codes (`NOT_LINKED=4`, `TIMEOUT=12`, …)
`agent-prompts`	Copy-paste prompts for common Cimplify workflows
`seeds`	Available mock seeds and how to switch between them

Output shape

Human mode

cimplify explain bundles

## Bundles and composites
**Bundles** are fixed product groupings with a single combined price.
**Composites** are build-your-own: the customer picks one option per
component and the price is computed from those selections.

```ts
const bundles = await client.catalogue.getBundles()
const bundle = await client.catalogue.getBundleById('bun_xxx')
…

Source: https://cimplify.dev/docs/sdk/catalogue#bundles-and-composites (snapshot in cli-v0.2.9)


Every topic ends with a footer pointing to the canonical doc URL on `cimplify.dev` and the CLI version the snapshot was taken in. If the docs evolve, upgrade the CLI (`cimplify update`) to refresh the snapshots.

### JSON mode

**No topic**: list every available topic:

```json
{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "topics": [
      { "name": "brand", "description": "…", "source_url": "https://cimplify.dev/docs/templates/brand" },
      { "name": "cart",  "description": "…", "source_url": "https://cimplify.dev/docs/sdk/cart" }
    ]
  }
}

With a topic: full body:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "topic": "cart",
    "title": "Cart",
    "body": "## Add an item\n\nThe add-to-cart payload is **flat**…",
    "source_url": "https://cimplify.dev/docs/sdk/cart",
    "snapshot_version": "0.2.9"
  }
}

Exit codes

Condition	Exit
Success (list or topic printed)	`0`
Unknown topic	`9` (`NOT_FOUND`)

The NOT_FOUND error includes a remediation hint pointing back to cimplify explain (no args) so agents can self-correct.

When to use what

Need	Tool
Quick rule mid-edit ("what's the cart shape?")	`cimplify explain cart`
Discover live API surface	`cimplify explain` (list)
Search the full docs corpus	the MCP `cimplify_search_docs` tool
Read prose on `cimplify.dev`	browser / llms.txt

explain is intentionally a fixed, curated set. Searching arbitrary doc paths from the CLI is deferred; use the MCP tool or fetch https://cimplify.dev/llms<path>.mdx directly.

cimplify explain

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